WP7 Update Information

Paul Thurrott has revealed some information on how Microsoft is going to to be releasing updates.

Charlie Kindel has clarified that the ‘NoDo’ codename isn’t a jibe at Android’s ‘Donut’ update. It’s a result of a guy failing to bring doughnuts to a meeting after losing a bet. Should clarify some of the comments on Engadget about the name.

You can see the main points (and the keynote video link) in this post.

The first update is codenamed ‘NoDo’ and could RTM this week. However, it seems that users won’t see the update until early February, when carriers sign off on it. The update will include copy and paste, support for the Qualcomm 7×30 smart phone chipset, a CDMA location stack, and a number of software fixes.

Paul has also revealed some information about a major update codenamed ‘Mango’ and adds Internet Explorer 9 with with the Trident 5 rendering engine, HTML 5, Silverlight and gesture support. He adds that there could be other updates inbetween NoDo and Mango.

He makes an interesting conclusion:

In case it’s not obvious, the first update above, combined with previous information about carriers’ abilities to stop updates for “one cycle” only, suggests very strongly that Microsoft will never (or at least not normally) ship fixes for individual issues. Instead, it appears to be handling WP updates as it does with services packs in the desktop Windows world. This is, in my opinion, a huge mistake. Microsoft has plenty to fix in Windows Phone, and it should be doing so as quickly as possible, one fix at a time if necessary.

It will be interesting to see if Microsoft clarify the details this week at CES and provide an official statement on WP7 updates.